Regionals: The First Trial

Heritage High School

What's up, readers.

Well, here we are again - yet another pom shin-dig. Competition Season has been in full swing for about a month now, with Abby attending pom practice with hear team like six days a week (she gets to rest on the Sabbath, that's about it.) Kicking competitions off is the annual Regionals showcase, once again at Heritage High School in Saginaw, where teams compete not against one another for scores or rankings (like they do at the MPA) but instead to qualify for next month's States showcase down at Eastern Michigan University.

Kris spotted Abby getting her hair fixed. 

Now that Abby's on the varsity team, qualifying for States is pretty much a guaranteed thing. Their team is super tight and polished, so nobody there doubted their inclusion in next month's competition, and as such Abby wasn't nervous about performing today at all. Since she's now in the older brackets of the day's competition, we didn't have to show up to the high school today quite as early as we've done the last four or five years - no more waking up at 5:30am just to stumble into a packed gymnasium at 7am - which was awesome. No, we rolled in around 10:30am and caught the land few JV teams before the break kicked off for judges to tally up all their scores.

The afternoon session lasted about two hours, which was much more manageable than the five-hour days we've stomached in the past. After Abby and her team were awarded their rankings this year (they qualified for the Division 1 Bracket, which will pit them against the ten other best pom squads in the state, which should be interesting to say the least), us and the Johnsons headed over to Timbers, a local sports bar, for our tradition food, beers, and debriefing session.

Now we all get to look forward to the epic conclusion of the Competition Season next month, down in Ypsilanti. Stay tuned for that adventure in a future installment.

So here you go, folks - Regionals '26. Enjoy. . .

This is what Kris took a pic of from across the gym - Abby's hair had come loose and one of the coaches had to fix it before they went on to perform.

While the girls awaited their turn to take the 'stage,' they distributed the portraits the All Star pommers had taken back at that Thanksgiving Parade they marched in. Abby had about two pounds of make-up on at the time, so she wasn't thrilled with how it turned out.

Kris, Courtney and Alayna (waist-deep in college homework) awaiting Midland High's turn to perform.

Midland Varsity Pom marches up, with Abby at the front of the line.

The routine was pretty snappy, and we didn't see any weak points in it throughout the song (though I'm not the best at spotting that sorta thing, even after all these years of going to pom competitions.)

Nailed the Kick Line.

(From the MHS Varsity Pom's Instagram account.)

(Abby is third from the right in the front row.)

The official video that was released to the coaches.

After all the teams had performed, the teams - as always - went down to the court and waited patiently for the judges to announce the results.

Midland High is in the back there, in blue.

Always with the bowed-down-praying-in-a-circle thing. . . .

Bam.

After all the teams had received their qualify/not-qualify results from the judges, kids began mingling about with parents (who all came down from the stands at the same time to collect their kids) and coaches scrambled to get some team pictures in. Here's the squad with their Regionals ribbons (Abby is third from the right in the back row.)

Brooklyn and Abby (as usual, Abby had to walk around and get pics with multiple combinations of people before we were able to get the hell out of there. . .)

Abby and some other random pommers (whose name escapes me.)

Abby, Harper (who's still on the JV team), and Ella (who was recently promoted to Varsity at the beginning of Competition Season.)

One with Grandma, who came out to watch Abby's performance.

Abby and yet another pommer who I don't know the name of.

Abby's boyfriend, Logan, came out to support her as well. I assume this is her shirt he's wearing, 'cause that'd be weird otherwise if he owned a pom shirt with her name emblazoned across the back.

Logan had arrived with a buddy of his to watch their respective girlfriends perform this afternoon, but his friend ended up ditching him to catch a ride home with his own girlfriend, so we ended up taking Logan along with us out to lunch and then home back to Midland.

We managed to get a family pic in, much to Abby's chagrin - she was funned out with pics at this point.

Ordering up some lunch at Timbers, after the competition. Everyone was starving at this point so food - and a couple beers - hit the spot.

Later that evening, the victorious Abby and her sister made a run to Taco Bell for even more food. . . because there's always room for Taco Bell around these parts. Stay tuned for Abby's climactic showdown in mid February. . .

- Brian